Feminism
FeminismMary Wollstonecraft is held as being the first modern feminist. She was born in 1759 to a gentry farmer and an unloving mother and is said to have began her protests at an early age by protecting her mother from an abusive father and resenting her brother's favored position. She worked as a governess for a number of years however she chose to make an unconventional career as an editor and a journalist. In 1786 she wrote the Thoughts on the Education of Daughters and in 1790 published A Vindication of the Rights of Man as a response to the goals brought fourth by the French revolution. However Wolstonecraft owes much of her fame to her feminist social study A Vindication of the Rights of Women. In this work Wollstonecraft addressed the legal, economic and educational disabilities of women. Ultimately she argues that the equal rights that are applied to men should be extended to include women. Women had the right to an education and the progress of all society depended on the fact that both sexes must be equally educated. Wollstonecraft explains that women should move away from their old emotional stereotypes and see education as the fundamental access to achieve a place in society.
The Rights of women contained other unconventional beliefs on society's standards of which Marriage was a constant theme. Marriage gave the husband legal ownership of his wife, her property, and their children. To divorce meant to leave everything behind. By being against Marriage Wollstonecraft was far ahead of her time, for in 18th century England a good marriage was the goal of most women. However for Wollstonecraft independence was essential...
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